Sania Mirza dropped down to number 170 on the tour
The professional tennis star from India, Sania Mirza has dropped down to number 170 in the WTA rankings on Monday after a couple of up and down performances over the last few weeks on the tour.
The twenty three year old Mirza however is unperturbed by the down slide in rankings. She will travel all the way to Guangzhou for the upcoming Asian Games in China to be contested in the second week of November and will try her
level best to capture some medals for her side.
The Mumbai born said on Sunday, "Playing for India is my priority. You have to make the tough choices. You sacrifice those weeks you play on the Tour to improve your ranking to play for your country. I love the feeling of winning
a medal for India. That is what I am looking forward to be doing in Guangzhou."
The Hyderabad resident who turned professional back in 2003 was of the view that it is extremely difficult to balance a year and play equally well in some back to back international events for your country. Mirza who also received
the Arjuna award from the government of India back in 2004 is famous for her strong forehand ground strokes right from the start of her career.
Her last title victory came back in September, where the wife of Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik teamed up with her Romanian partner Edina Gallovits to win her ninth WTA double crown of her career at the Guangzhou International
Women’s Open doubles Competition in China. The Indian- Romanian duo got the better of local favourites Wanting Liu and Xinyun Han in a total of two sets to triumph at the $220,000 hard court competition. The final match score was 7-5, 6-3. It was Mirza’s first
WTA trophy in seventeen months as the previous time she captured was back in April last year at the Ponte Vedra Beach tournament along with her partner Chia-Jung Chuang of Taipei.
Overall, this year has been a trial for the Indian ace, who was sidelined for four months at the beginning of the season as a result of her wrist injury. In the subsequent months, Sania’s ranking crashed from a top sixty place.
She didn’t play well after making a return on the tour and even the grass court Grand Slam event in London didn’t help her regain her form. Mirza’s confidence and form however was improved at the year’s final major, the United States Open in New York where
she played some good tennis. In the multi discipline, Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, the right hander was once again the top favourite and strongly supported by the local crowd as she won a silver medal in the women’s singles tennis event.
Competing for the country however costs a player in terms of power rankings as a player skips three weeks of championship on the tour every time he or she selects to play for the country in an event like the Commonwealth Games
or the Asian Games.
Mirza, as a result of missing the WTA tour for the entire last week couldn’t defend the 130 points she earned back in 2009, and thus her rankings dropped according to the new list released on Monday.
Most probably, Mirza will be the only elite tennis contender from India at the Asian Games in China. The number one Indian Somdev Devvarman, who also won a gold medal in New Delhi is expected to skip the next month’s Asian Games.
He along with Rohan Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi is currently focusing on the year ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London which will also start from the second week of November.
Mirza, however confirmed that she will not skip the China event at any cost and will try her level best to perform outstandingly well for her country.
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